Research Article
Open access
Published on 30 August 2024
Download pdf
Du,X. (2024). Anxiety, Dilemma and Transcendence - The Case of Lilly's Drawing Process. Communications in Humanities Research,44,149-155.
Export citation

Anxiety, Dilemma and Transcendence - The Case of Lilly's Drawing Process

Xinyi Du *,1,
  • 1 Nankai University

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/44/20240083

Abstract

In Virginia Woolf's classic work To the Lighthouse, although Lily is not the main character, the idea of bisexuality embodied in her makes her one of the most important objects in the study of feminist thought. This paper intends to start from the rough painting process of Lily in To the Lighthouse to discover the content of Lily beyond feminist thought. Through the study, it finds that Lili not only symbolizes the beautiful personality of bisexuality, but she is also full of anxiety and dilemmas: the dilemma of the mind when creating, the anxiety about the right of free choice, the anxiety about the meaning of life existence, and the dilemmas of communication between human beings and human beings, between human beings and the ego, and the book also puts forward the way of transcending anxiety and dilemmas. The book also suggests ways to transcend anxiety and dilemma. Through analyzing the process of Lili's painting, this paper uncovers the anxious and difficult side of Lili's image, which not only enriches the previous research on Lili's image (bisexual homoeroticism), but also further reveals her complex and varied inner spiritual world, and these discoveries provide us with a more comprehensive and in-depth perspective for understanding and interpreting this important character in this masterpiece of literature.

Keywords

Anxiety, dilemma, communication, bisexual homoeroticism, spiritual immortality

[1]. Yinghong Wang, Baiyan Yang. On Virginia Woolf's view of bisexual homoerotic femininity [J]. Journal of Northeastern University (Social Science Edition), 2010,12(05), 466-470.

[2]. Chen J. "Bisexual Identity" and Woolf's Feminist Narrative [D]. Shanghai: East China Normal University, 2008.

[3]. Yao Simeng. Virginia Woolf's Feminist Thought and Her Novel To the Lighthouse [D]. Shandong: Qingdao University, 2018.

[4]. Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse [M]. Translated by Qu Shijing. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2022.

[5]. Xiaoming YI. Beauty and Madness: A Biography of Virginia Woolf [M]. Beijing: Beijing Literature Union Publishing House, 2002.

[6]. Virginia Woolf. Selections from Woolf's Diary [M]. Dai Hongzhen, Song Binghui. Tianjin: Hundred Flowers Literature and Art Publishing House, 2008.

[7]. Xianghua Tan. Dilemma and Way Out - A Study of Woolf's Stream of Consciousness Trilogy in the Existentialist Perspective [D]. Hunan: Hunan Normal University, 2014.

[8]. Yongzhen Shu. Distinction and Integration: A Feminist Interpretation of To the Lighthouse [J]. Foreign Literature Research, 2001(01).

[9]. Jieying Cui. On Communication in Woolf's Novels - From To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway [D]. Nanjing: Nanjing University, 2011.

[10]. Sharon Wood Proudfit. Lily Briscoe's Painting: A Key to Personal Relationships in "To the Lighthouse"[J]. Criticism , Winter 1971, Vol. 13, No. 1.

[11]. André Viola. Fluidity versus Muscularity: Lily's Dilemma in Woolf's "To the Lighthouse"[J]. Journal of Modern Literature ,Winter, 2000-2001, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Cite this article

Du,X. (2024). Anxiety, Dilemma and Transcendence - The Case of Lilly's Drawing Process. Communications in Humanities Research,44,149-155.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art, Design and Social Sciences

Conference website: https://2024.icadss.org/
ISBN:978-1-83558-635-8(Print) / 978-1-83558-636-5(Online)
Conference date: 18 October 2024
Editor:Enrique Mallen
Series: Communications in Humanities Research
Volume number: Vol.44
ISSN:2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).